CBM/CSG: Dart to Acquire Greenpark Energy

Leading coal seam gas player Dart Energy Limited has moved to increase its European exposure by acquiring the unconventional gas assets of UK company Greenpark Energy, for total consideration of $42 million.

Greenpark holds 38 licences totalling approximately 3,000 km² located onshore in the United Kingdom, which it claims is the largest onshore acreage position of any oil and gas company operating in the United Kingdom.

Greenpark has pursued UK test and appraisal drilling operations since 2007, having to date completed six vertical test wells and two horizontal pilot production wells that the company reports have been flow tested and which have demonstrated commercial flow rates.

The company has estimated net gas in place estimated at 4 trillion cubic feet, of which 1.8 trillion cubic feet are 2C reserves with 3P reserves of 48 billion cubic feet and has stated that it plans initial CBM production as early as the second half of 2012.

Greenpark recently received approval from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency for the use of hydraulic fracturing in the extraction of coal bed methane gas at its Canonbie site in Dumfries and Galloway where is has already conducted exploratory drilling several hundreds of metres into the ground. The company is also seeking a licence for a second site in the area, two miles north of the Scottish Border, in a bid to tap into gas trapped in 400,000 tonnes of coal deep underground.

Dart has also acquired a 100 per cent option to acquire Greenpark-held acreage in both Poland and Spain.

In August, Dart said that it planned to list its international portfolio of coal bed methane assets on the Singapore Stock Exchange, to provide a platform for future growth and to unlock shareholder value.